1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to closed captioned television broadcasts, more particularly to methods for providing selection of such services for digital television broadcasts.
2. Background of the Invention
Closed captioning is a service provided with most television broadcasts. In the current analog television standards, such as NTSC, the closed caption service is typically embedded in the vertical blanking interval of the video signal. The Electronic Industry Association (EIA) has standards for governing the provision of such services. In current NTSC televisions, the parameters of closed caption services are set out in EIA-608.
This closed caption service has several options for closed caption and text services, CC1, CC2, CC3, CC4, T1, T2, T3, T4 and EDS (electronic data service). The user can select the particular one of these services in several ways. In one method, the user can access the closed caption services menu by pressing the MENU button on the remote control. The user then makes the choice by highlighting a selection on the menu provided and then exiting the menu systems
Other implementations include cycling through choices on the menu, or a list of caption services provided when a CAPTION button is pressed on the remote control. However, all of these implementations are for analog television only and does not contemplate other possibilities that are made possible by the provision of closed caption services in digital television. For example, the standard for digital closed caption services has sixteen possible closed caption services. It would be awkward for the user to have to cycle through all these selections if there are no services for them.
Therefore, it would be useful if a solution for closed caption service selection were provided for digital television broadcasts.